NSF06-505
An outline of the information contained in the Cyberinfrastructure solicitation.

1	Program Details
1.1	Program Officers
1.1.1	Stephen Meacham
1.1.1.1	ITR Program Director
1.1.1.2	Directorate for Geosciences
1.1.1.2.1	Division of Atmospheric Sciences
1.1.1.3	Programs
1.1.1.3.1	MMI (Marine Metadata Initeroperability)
1.1.2	Alexandra Isern
1.1.2.1	Program Director
1.1.2.2	Directorate for Geosciences
1.1.2.2.1	 Division of Ocean Sciences
1.1.2.3	Programs
1.1.2.3.1	CISE (Informatics in Science and Engineering)
1.1.3	Elizabeth R. Blood
1.1.3.1	Program Director
1.1.3.2	Directorate for Biological Sciences
1.1.3.2.1	Division of Biological Infrastructure
1.1.3.3	Programs
1.1.4	Kevin L. Thompson
1.1.4.1	Program Director
1.1.4.2	Office of the Director
1.1.4.2.1	Office of Cyberinfrastructure
1.1.4.3	Programs
1.1.4.3.1	NMI (NSF Middleware Initiative)
1.1.4.3.2	HPWREN
1.1.5	Patrick L. Brezonik
1.1.5.1	Program Director
1.1.5.2	Directorate for Engineering
1.1.5.2.1	Division of Bioengineering & Environmental Systems
1.2	Program Funding
1.2.1	Each Award
1.2.1.1	Project Durations of 3 to 4 years
1.2.1.2	Annual budgets gneerally no larger than $750K/year
1.2.2	Total Program
1.2.2.1	4 standard or continuing grants
1.2.2.2	Total funding $8.5M
2	Context
2.1	Significant effectiveness factors for observatories
2.1.1	the degree to which the data they collect are made readily available
 to a wide cross-section of the environmental research community
2.1.2	range of tools that researchers can bring to bear on the analysis of these data
2.1.3	ease with which resources, both data and tools, can be discovered and used
2.2	Challenges
2.2.1	integrating multiple, existing information management systems 
in different environmental research disciplines
2.2.2	bridging the semantic representations of multiple disciplines within environmental research
2.2.3	expanding the range of resources that can be used by workflow orchestration tools, 
or other AI-based techniques, to assist users in developing complex, multi-stage processing tasks
2.2.4	supplying technology to support user-configurable event-detection and the execution 
of event-triggered responses in real-time or near real-time data streams
2.2.5	providing the ability for users to configure virtual observatories 
to bring together data streams from sensors in different observing systems.
3	References
3.1	Projects
3.1.1	Environmental Observatories
3.1.1.1	OOI (Ocean Observatories Initiative)
3.1.1.2	CLEANER (Collaborative, Large-Scale, Engineering 
Analysis Network for Environmental Research) 
3.1.1.3	COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for 
Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate)
3.1.1.4	NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network)
3.1.2	Environmental Projects
3.1.2.1	SEEK (Science Environment for Ecological Knowledge)
3.1.2.2	SCEC-CME (Southern CA Earthquake Center--Community Modeling Environment)
3.1.2.3	GEON (Geosciences Network)
3.1.2.4	ROADNet (Real-time Observatories, Applications, and Data Mgt Network)
3.1.2.5	LEAD (Linked Environments for Atmospheric Discovery)
3.1.3	Other Projects
3.1.3.1	BIRN (Biomedical Informatics Research Network)
3.1.3.2	Tree-of-Life
3.1.3.3	GriPhyN (Grid Physics Network)
3.1.3.4	NVO (National Virtual Observatory)
3.1.3.5	NEES (National Earthquake Engineering System)
3.2	General Initiatives
3.2.1	NMI (National Middleware Initiative)
3.2.2	PACI (Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure) program
3.2.3	computer science research
3.2.3.1	distributed computing
3.2.3.2	information integration
3.2.3.3	intelligent systems
3.3	Reports
3.3.1	Environmental Cyberinfrastructure needs for Distributed Sensor Networks
3.3.2	Cyberinfrastructure for Environmental Research and Education
3.3.3	NSF Cyberworkshop: http://www.orionocean.org/office/NSFCyberWkshp.html
4	Objectives
4.1	to help insure that the needed information infrastructure 
technologies are available when needed
4.1.1	to support the widespread use of large environmental observing systems
for cutting-edge research
4.2	help environmental research communities and information technologists 
gain expertise with the technological challenges of deploying such infrastructure
4.2.1	so that cyberinfrastructure design can be 
integrated properly into observatory design
4.2.2	so that cyberinfrastructure deployment can be 
integrated properly into observatory deployment
4.3	promote Cyberinfrastructure for Environmental Observatories (CEO)
4.4	practical environmental cyberinfrastructure prototypes 
4.5	demonstration of their capability to answer significant environmental research questions
4.6	stimulate substantial interdisciplinary collaborations that result in the development and deployment 
of prototype cyberinfrastructure for environmental observatories
4.7	inform the planning of, and development of, an environmental cyberinfrastructure for large-scale, environmental observing systems
5	Criteria
5.1	Proposal Criteria
5.1.1	pursue an end-to-end approach to 
an information infrastructure prototype
5.1.1.1	must be capable of 
working with representative data
5.1.1.2	must be capable of being 
operated with representative users
5.1.1.2.1	on tasks representing those needed
5.1.1.2.1.1	in environmental research
5.1.1.2.1.2	in education activities
5.1.2	discuss the types of data involved
5.1.3	ways in which users might wish to use these data
5.1.4	discuss how use case scenarios will be developed
5.1.5	include a plan for the deployment of a prototype that implements these types of uses
5.1.6	justify any further IT development
5.1.6.1	clearly identifies the gap that this development seeks to fill
5.1.6.2	identify its importance to environmental observatory cyberinfrastructure
5.1.7	identifies and addresses one or more questions about how cyberinfrastructure for environmental observatories might be designed and function
5.1.8	involve students
5.1.8.1	 to take advantage of training opportunities
5.1.9	enable reuse
5.1.9.1	describe how successful software will be made robust, documented, and disseminated
5.1.9.2	describe integration into sustained CI for environmental observatories
5.1.9.2.1	how to integrate after award
5.1.9.2.2	resources required
5.1.9.2.3	applicability to future science questions
5.2	Project Criteria
5.2.1	develop and deploy a prototype of a cyberinfrastructure component for environmental observatories
5.2.2	support a wide collection of users
5.2.3	tackle how to integrate data from varied observing systems
5.2.3.1	different types
5.2.3.2	different disciplinary foci
5.2.4	readily generalizable
5.2.5	leverage existing CI development efforts by utilizing and combining their software
5.2.5.1	ITR (Information Technology Research)
5.2.5.2	NMI (NSF Middleware Initiative)
5.2.5.3	SEIII (Science and Engineering Informatics and Information Integration)
5.2.5.4	extant environmental observational networks
5.2.6	use existing sources of data rather than making new observations
5.2.6.1	extant environmental observational networks
5.2.6.2	extensive use of existing data streams or data sets OR
5.2.6.3	leverages data expected to come online as a result of other environmental observation projects
5.2.7	involve collaborations between information technologists and environmental researchers
5.2.7.1	ocean science
5.2.7.2	ecology
5.2.7.3	atmospheric science
5.2.7.4	environmental engineering
5.2.8	advance contemporary environmental research
5.2.8.1	advance the technological capabilities of the environmental research community beyond what is currently possible
5.3	Additional Project Characteristics
5.3.1	flexible cyberinfrastructure prototype amenable to extension and upgrade
5.3.2	works with real environmental data and demonstrates the utility of its approach.
5.3.2.1	includes a mechanism for general users to access the prototype
5.3.2.2	attract users outside of those directly involved in the project
5.3.2.2.1	include plan describing 
how this will be achieved
5.3.2.2.1.1	describe how users' experiences 
with the prototype will be documented
5.3.2.2.1.2	describe types of users targeted
5.3.3	demonstrates the viability of its approach by identifying one or more compelling environmental research questions addressed within the project lifetime
6	No-Nos
6.1	don't use fund for new data, new models, or model augmentation
6.2	don't overlap with existing project 
6.3	don't fall within scope of an existing funding opportunity
6.4	no need to address long-term operation and maintenance
7	Examples
7.1	integrating multiple, existing information infrastructures in different environmental research disciplines 
7.2	bridging the samantics of multiple disciplines within environmental research
7.3	expanding range of usage of workflow capabilities
7.3.1	"complex, mutli-stage processing tasks"
7.3.2	"workflow orchestration tools or other AI-based techniques
7.4	support event detection and execution of event-triggered responses
7.4.1	real-time data streams
7.4.2	near real-time data streams
7.5	enable creation of user-configurable virtual observatories that bring together sensors from different observing systems